How to Help Landfill Space with RecyclingEssay Preview: How to Help Landfill Space with RecyclingReport this essayWe all consume food and drinks, but do you ever stop and wonder what happens to our waste? We just throw it in that garbage can and let the garbage men pick it up. After they pick it up all we do is worry about getting the can before it rolls into the road. If you stop and think about how much trash the average American produces, it adds up to be 1,460 pounds per year. (Yahoo, 2002) Now take that number and multiply it by how many Americans there are and thats your grand total. At that amount of trash we are producing we will run out of places to put it all. There are many easy and simple ways to help reduce the amount of trash produced.
When you think of a land fill you just think of a giant mound of garbage. Truthfully is it way more then that. Landfills use the latest technology to keep the community as safe as possible from the dangers decomposing garbage can pose to the environment. “There are about five layers to a landfill. The base is a clay barrier that prevents soil and water contamination. Above that is a plastic layer which also helps prevents soil and water contamination. Next is the leachate collection which is perforated pipes in a layer of sand that collects rainwater that has filtered through the landfill. Then above that is the refuse cell, its the collected garbage surrounded by soil by the daily cover. The daily cover is the top of all the layers. The daily cover is soil that is compacted on top of the garbage at the end of each day. Garbage disposal is no simple matter. The threat of contaminating our water and air doesnt just go away when the landfill reaches its capacity. The garbage continues to decompose, and must be monitored long after the landfill reaches maximum capacity” (Solid Waste, 2000). The trash production in the United States has almost tripled since 1960. This trash is handled in various ways. About 27 percent of the trash is recycled or composted, 16 percent is burned and 57 percent is buried in landfills. The amount of trash buried in landfills has doubled since 1960. The United States ranks about in the middle of the major countries (United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and Japan) in landfill disposal. The United Kingdom ranks highest, burying about 90 percent of its solid waste in landfills (HowStuffWorks, 1998).
The best way to help keep waste down to a minimum is to recycle. With recycling we can dramatically reduce the amount of waste that goes to the landfill. The first real recycling program was introduced in New York City in the 1890s. The citys first recycling plant was built in 1898. (Recycling Rules!!, 1998) There are many types of materials that can be recycled. They include: Aluminum, batteries, glass, motor oil, paint, paper, and plastics. For the majority of these you can put outside next to your mailbox on pick-up day. The other materials can be dropped off at your local dump, and they will carry on the process from there. About 75% of our garbage can be recycled. There is information out there that not a lot of people know about like there is no limit to the amount of times and aluminum can, could be recycled (Recycling Rules!!, 1998).
When you crumple up a piece of paper you never wonder what youre actually doing. Paper, which comes from trees, is a valuable source of our everyday life. Yet we throw it away instead of recycling it. “In fact each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, 3 cubic yards of landfill space, 4000 kilowatts of energy, and 7000 gallons of water. With those numbers that would represent a 64% energy savings, a 58% water savings and 60 pounds less of air pollution” (Recycling Rules!!, 1998). This is all done by just recycling paper. We use a lot of paper, more then most countries. “Paper is everywhere, just think of your Sunday newspaper it takes 500,000 trees a week. Recycling a single run of the Sunday New York Times would save 75,000 trees” (Recycling
ᑬ, “Do I get more of it, Mr. President? What am I gonna do tomorrow with all this money?”) „ The President is always getting the wrong answer because I was telling the truth. I am wrong about all this. I just tried too hard. I did this. (This is more of an exercise for you. You might agree that “yes” to this may mean you’re doing too well, but if so, please accept that this is not an exercise for you. Be assured that you’ll be okay, but if so, be sure to take it down quickly.) Recycling in the States ὼ You’ll go to the stores, throw the paper out and not think about it, go to Walmart, buy other things that you want, then go back home to do this yourself. But most of the more than 20 things that you pick up, what you buy, and what your neighbor, your father, your spouse, your boss, your co-worker, your friends, your neighbors in the community, those people in public buildings, even the people of small towns, have to be recycled. “ The New York Times recycle paper only as needed. But what is recyclable paper? Paper is made of different materials. How far are the different materials able to be applied on the surface? How many different materials can be combined together to make an additive? Are the different forms able to be applied to material before it becomes the same? ‰ A few seconds of reading at your school, you find out that that compound is made up of different elements, and which can only be applied together with the right materials. And if it looks like the compound has been applied, but is not, go to work on it later in the day. It doesn’t matter. “ (I guess this is the best way to describe that last quote, not a bad one. Maybe it was just a joke or something.) “ Can you imagine how fast such a compound reacts to being placed in a garbage box? This is not just about making a lot of junk, this is also about the waste of time. The idea that the same thing will do your hair, your makeup, your clothes, your groceries, your toys and your favorite TV show just because it’s in one of the garbage cans would be a total bummer (and a bunch of waste). The problem of recycling paper can be found everywhere. It has to do with the chemistry, the chemistry of food, clothing, and water. Some paper has to do with the bonding of different kinds of metal to one another, one metal to one another through the various chemical bonds and molecules, etc . And many others have to do with the interplay between two or more elements of paper and itself. There are also chemicals that make